SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 19: A "now hiring" sign is posted on a table during the Recruit Military Career Fair March 19, 2009 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. Hundreds of military veterans attended the career fair that was open only to veterans. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

ASHEVILLE — Buncombe County's unemployment rate remained steady in December at 3.4 percent, the lowest recorded rate in North Carolina and almost a percentage point better than the national average.

The Labor and Economic Analysis Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce said Thursday Buncombe was one of 42 counties to record an unadjusted unemployment rate below the statewide average of 4.4 percent. The county also had a 3.4 percent jobless rate in November, up just slightly from 3.1 percent in October.

Asheville's Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Transylvania and Madison counties, also was the best in the state at 3.6 percent. It, too, finished with the same rate it recorded in November.

Of the state's 15 metropolitan statistical areas, Asheville MSA was two-tenths of a point better than Durham/Chapel Hill and Raleigh and four-tenths of a point ahead of Burlington, the department said.

In Asheville, the area lost 200 total jobs in the month, a reduction of one-tenth of a percent, including a 700-job reduction in the leisure and hospitality industry. Manufacturing as well as professional and business services also lost jobs during the month. The largest sector of growth was in trade, transportation and utilities, which gained 700 jobs in December.

Dating back to December 2016, the MSA has added 3,300 jobs, or growth of 1.7 percent, largely buoyed by the 1,000 job growth in leisure and hospitality, 700 jobs added in professional and business services and in education and health services, and 500 jobs in mining, logging and construction.

The only sector jobs year-over-year was trade, transportation and utilities, which lost 200 jobs.

Elsewhere in Western North Carolina, unemployment rates for surrounding counties include: